News Collider - Board Game News 6/3/2019


The rest of the Polyhedron Collider crew are getting all excited about going to Airecon tomorrow. They’re running around the office like a group of six-year olds after a bin bag full of Haribo, arguing over what games to play while extolling the virtues of cream teas and raspberry mojitos. I, however, am stuck at the news desk trying to get some actual work done.

And there’s plenty to write about, from more Harry Potter, more Ghostbusters and more Monopoly and Cluedo/Clue versions. Maybe I should just go ridicule Andy for his game choices.


GAME ANNOUNCEMENT ARTY-TYPE GAMES FROM AEG
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Alderac Entertainment Group will be releasing two art-themed games later this year.  

Atelier: The Painter’s Studio has players managing an art studio with dice drafting and worker placement.  Tarot sized painting cards will allow players to build up unique combinations and collections for a dollop of strategy in this light game.

Walking in Burano, is another light game of set collection and hand management of collecting the town’s famous brightly coloured buildings (originally published by EmperorS4 who did Hanamikoji).
Both games are due for release in Autumn.

GAME ANNOUNCEMENT: MORE HARRY POTTER GAMES
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What we need is a Social Deduction Harry Potter game and that’s just what you’ll get in the upcoming release from Goliath Games this Autumn.   Dumbledore’s Army is a “Werewolf-style” game where some players will be Death Eaters and others will be hapless good members of the wizarding community.
  
The second Harry Potter game coming from Goliath Games finally brings the element we’ve all really wanted.  A wand.  If I said “Pictionary, but with a wand” you’d probably understand everything you need to about Harry Potter Spellcasters Game- which could make it a great Christmas present for that friend who has a replica wand on display on their bookshelf.
Finally (and I use that word loosely when it comes to Harry Potter Boardgames), Asmodee and Warner Brothers have agreed to a Harry Potter Dobble.
  

GAME ANNOUNCEMENT: FANTASTIQ
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CMON teased many a new release at last month’s New York Toy Fair, one of which was Fantastiq, a social sculpting game.  Designed by Lorenzo Silva (Railroad Ink, Potion Explosion, Steam Park) and Hjalmar Hach (Railroad Ink, Photosynthesis, Kickass: The Boardgame).

In this game players are given a block of clay and a time-limited to sculpt an abstract concept, like Anger.  Players then guess (evaluate) which “Pieces” refers to which abstract cards.

GAME ANNOUNCEMENT: HORRIFIED
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This summer, Ravensburger will bring the full array of Universal’s Classic horror movie monsters to a board near you with Horrified. Featuring Dracula, the Wolfman, The Creature from the Black Lagoon and all the others.

Each monster comes with its own special attacks and rules as they slowly work their way through the labyrinth to attack the village which players must defend.  

GAME ANNOUNCEMENT: GHOSTBUSTERS: BLACKOUT
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The Ghostbusters horse is far from dead and with Ghostbusters 3 (the proper Ghostbusters 3) movie in the works said horse will, of course, be coming back to ectoplasmic-life soon.  So, in between watching the classics and the teaser trailer over-and-over again you can fill your ghost trap with a fully co-op board game of dice chucking and equipment upgrading from IDW available in July.

GAME ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM THUNDERWORKS
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Two new dice based games are coming from Thunderworks this year from the publishers of Roll Player and set in that D20 Roll Player universe.

Lockup: A Roll Player Tale, from designer Stan Kordonskiy (Dice Hospital), has the players running a gang in a fantasy jail.  It’s a worker placement game of resource collection where you’ll want the good stuff but also trying to avoid suspicion and the attention of the guards.

Lockup: A Roll Player Tale successfully funded on Kickstarter last year and is due to land in backer’s hands in August and shortly thereafter on retail shelves (although you can still jump on with a late pledge if you really fancy it)

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The second Roll Player set game is Cartographers: A Roll Player Tale, a roll and write game about plotting the landscape of your majestic queen.  This game will basically have you drawing fantasy RPG maps competitively, and for me, that’s enough!   Thunderworks are taking pre-orders now for Cartographers with the option of a GenCon pick-up.

GAME ANNOUNCEMENTS PENNYWISE THE CLOWN
Various IT board games

Pennywise the terrifying clown from Stephen King’s IT will be coming to some mainstream board games, like Cluedo and Monopoly later this year.  In Clue: IT you’ll be gathering clues about Pennywise whilst trying to dodge red balloons.  In Monopoly IT, you’ll be playing Monopoly but it will be themed on the 2017 movie.

Flippancy aside, the OP also teased a third, original game titled IT: Evil Below which will be a co-op dice and card game - not much else is known about it at this time.

GAME ANNOUNCEMENT: HEX ROLLER
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Do you love Ominoes but prefer hexes to squares?  Well then, this May, Renegade Games may have the game that’s perfect for you.  Hex Roller is game about rolling dice and trying to fill up regions on your score sheet.  Think Blockbusters meets Ominoes, meets Sudoku.  

GAME ANNOUNCEMENT: UNDAUNTED: NORMANDY
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This August Osprey games will release a two-player deck builder game to recreate the history of the US 30th Infantry fighting its way across France after the D-Day landings.

German and US platoons duke it out over a series of battles with typical deck building (through reinforcements) and deck slimming (through casualties).  Designed by the team behind War Chest and Orclympics (David Thompson and Trevor Benjamin) Undaunted: Normandy also features fantastic art from Roland McDonald (Ruthless).

EXPANSION ANNOUNCEMENT: SPYFALL TIME TRAVEL
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It's Spyfall.  Exactly as you know it but with new locations set across time.

It can be played as a stand-alone game or combined with the previous 2 main releases to have 240 locations...that’s about that really needs to be said about it really.

PRE-ORDERS OPEN: DETECTIVE L.A CRIMES
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One of Steve’s most anticipated games of 2019, Detective L.A Crimes is the first expansion for the rather brilliant Detective from Portal Games.  Set in 1980’s California (Beverly Hills Cop anyone?)

This expansion adds new mechanics of the classic Stakeout and Observation and will change players in a new way, how far will you go to uncover the truth with some added choices when interrogating suspects.  

PRE-ORDERS OPEN: ROBOTECH CRISIS POINT
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Back in January we told you about two different RPGs based on the Robotech IP, well, for those of you that love Robotech but find organising friends to play an RPG too much of a nightmare (and isn’t it just) then you may be interested in Robotech: Crisis Point a two player area control, hand management game from SolarFlare Games.

JUST RELEASED: LIFT OFF
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It’s the Space Race in the latest game from Z-Man Games.  Choose your missions wisely, train your crew and upgrade your ship in this retro looking game of card drafting and set collection - from the sounds of it, this sounds a little bit like Farsight, but a whole heap better.

POLYHEDRON COLLIDER AT AIRECON

We will be at AireCon this coming weekend and will be bringing our own unique brand of ramshackle nonsense to a live podcast. Come join us at 4:30pm on Saturday in the Crown Suite.

More details are here:  Polyhedron Collider Live at Airecon

POLYHEDRON COLLIDER AT AIRECON

CRITICAL ROLE, ROLL A CRIT
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It’s been just 48 hours since Critical Role began their Kickstarter to produce animated versions of their first season of adventures, yet already they have raised nearly £3.8m. Yes, that’s right £3,740,000!

Note: we’ve changed this number a few times already, so by the time you read it, it will no doubt be higher

D & D YOUNG ADVENTURER’S GUIDE

This Summer Ten Speed Press will be releasing the first in a series of new D&D books aimed at introducing young (or new) players into the awesomeness that is Dungeons & Dragons.

The books are written for kids from around 10 - 13 years and will showcase a range of the Monsters & Creatures adventure’s are likely to meet in...Monsters & Creatures, which also includes an introductory encounter to practice against.  The second book, also out on July 16th, Weapons & Warriors helps players build their first characters with lots of fun details and illustrations of the, well, the weapons and warriors in the world of Dungeons & Dragons.

RECORD BREAKING BLACK LOTUS SALE
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$166,100 for a GEM MINT (graded 9.5 by Beckett Grading Services) is the new record for a non-sports trading card on eBay.  The seller bought the card a few months previous to the sale (which they picked up for $87,672), so they’ve turned a tidy profit on this super rare Magic the Gathering card  

INSERT STANDARD IDW NEWS STORY HERE>>

IDW Media Holdings CEO, Kerry McCluggae is leaving the company after the Q4 results showed an expected, but the very disappointing loss of $36 million.

Howard Jonas, the largest stakeholder and chairman, will be taking the reins from here on out.  There is no expected knock-on from this loss into IDW Publishing (responsible for the board game and comic book side of the business) but a $36 million loss doesn’t just tucked away in a corner…

TOP SELLING GAMES
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ICV2 have released the top ten selling games of Q4 for 2018.  Top of this list is Catan followed by Pandemic and Ticket to RideGloomhaven, Mysterium and Scythe bring up the rear in 8, 9 and 10 respectively while the comparative newcomers Azul and Sagrada straddle the middle of the table.  This is all really goes to show that the industry is still growing with what can only be more folks joining the boardgamer ranks.

This Top Ten dropped at almost the same time that Stonemaier Games released their stakeholder report, showing that Scythe has over 250,000 total copies in circulation.
Still think the hobby is niche?

THREE BECOME ONE
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Three indie publishing companies are merging to create a MegaPublishingBot, Auroch Digital (Mars Horizon: Blast Off), Bos Taurus Diceworks (an as yet unreleased major IP boardgame) and Underground Games (Jagged Alliance: The Board Game and Castle von Loghan) are combining their strengths, insights and creativity to produce higher quality games.

The three companies, based across the UK and Germany have called for other independent publishers to join the MegPublishingBot Party to bring even more experience and expertise into the room

CAPSTONE MERGER
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Capstone (Ragusa, Pipeline) has agreed to a partnership with Winsome Games to publish a new series of games, the first of which is the re-release of Irish Gauge with all new art and graphics from industry legend Ian O’Toole.

“The Iron Rail series from Capstone Games features games centred around investing in and building railroad networks with a focus on a specific geographic region in the world. Player interaction, route building, and stock investments are key features of the Iron Rail series.”

AN ICECOOL TRIP
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Way back in October we told you about “The most awesome boardgame based competition ever!” a trip on a cruise ship to Antarctica to go and hang out with penguins, see glaciers and generally be very cold but have an amazing experience.  All contestants had to do was film and upload the most impressive Icecool trick shot.

A panel of judges, including Mr Vassel voted this video the best of 262 entries.

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